Where those associated with Western films from around the world are laid to rest.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

RIP Andy Lewis

The Concord
Journal

March 13, 2018

Andrew Kittredge Lewis died at his Walpole NH
home on Wednesday, February 28th, 2018 at the age of 92. He had a long career
writing for television and the movies, and is perhaps best known for the
screenplay Klute, a 1971 classic thriller directed by Alan J. Pakula. Andy
Lewis was born in Cambridge, MA,
the son of Mabel Maxwell (Graves) and Harvard
philosopher Clarence Irving Lewis. He was educated in the public schools in Lexington and later attended the Phillips Exeter
Academy. He was called to
action in the Fall of 1943, the year he turned eighteen. He served in the Army
with the 86th Blackhawk Division as a machine gunner. After the war he
graduated Harvard in 1949, and moved into the new Conantum development in Concord MA
with his first wife, Sally (Cushman). Lewis writing career was closely tied to
the origins and rise of television entertainment. For a few years after
graduating from Harvard, Lewis cobbled together jobs that gave him spare time
to pursue writing projects. He delivered milk for local farms such as Verrills,
took a part-time stint at WGBH and worked in the Harvard Financial Aid Office
while composing short stories for periodicals like The Atlantic Monthly and The
Saturday Evening Post. Things took a different turn when in 1953 he was offered
a job writing for a television program called Omnibus, and thereby joined the
first cohort of writers creating content for the brand new TV industry. Omnibus
was a pioneering exploration of televisions educational potential. Its varied
format suited Lewis temperament because he could shift between pieces, for
example, on dance, Greek theater or education. While working on a segment about
Harvard University, Lewis met then- Senator John
F. Kennedy. This led to occasional work speech writing and editing for JFK,
Leverett Saltonstall and Henry Cabot Lodge. After Omnibus, Lewis wrote for
anthology drama series such as Encounter, The DuPont show with June Allyson,
The Kraft Suspense Theater and Profiles in Courage. As the commercial appeal of
westerns, crime dramas and medical shows grew, his contributions shifted to
serials like The Virginian, The FBI and Dr. Kildare. Andy Lewis half-seriously
referred to his job in television as that of a "worditute", and was
only lightly invested in the final product. His professional choices were
always steered by what he considered best for his children. Play writing was an
outlet that allowed him control over a fully realized creation, but one that he
couldnt often indulge. He valued his ties with The Theatre Company of Boston, which, during the
'60s, was a crucible for young talent. At a 1964 reading of Lewis play The
Triumph of Lincoln Clum, the lead character was read by an actor just on the
cusp of his big breakout, Dustin Hoffman. Another play, The Infantry, was staged
at the Theatre Company of Boston,
and included a young Blythe Danner and Paul Benedict in the cast. The Infantry
also had an off-Broadway run in which the creator of Hair, James Rado,
performed. By the 1970s Andy Lewis moved from TV work to feature-length film
writing. He and his brother Dave wrote the script for Klute on speculation and
it was quickly purchased by Warner Brothers. For the next fifteen years, Lewis
continued to live in Concord
writing screenplays. He was perhaps exceptional in that he enjoyed success in
the film industry without having to reside in either L.A.
or New York City.
In 1985 Andy Lewis stopped writing and revisited a longtime interest in
architecture. Back in 1959, he had co-authored a book At Home With Tomorrow
with the architect Carl Koch, about Kochs approach to the challenges of
adaptable design and inexpensive fabrication. Kochs distinctive Mid-century
Modernist homes, called Techbuits are now found throughout the country, but the
Conantum community in Concord
was among the earlier established developments. Andy Lewis admired the style
and owned three different Conantum houses at various times. In pursuit of his
own ideas Lewis temporarily moved to Sacramento
CA and began to learn how to make
and manipulate molded concrete forms. He devised a building system that used
curved concrete modules or Quadrans that could be combined into a variety of
open, cathedral-like structures. The main component was a self-supporting
canopy, so his invention greatly reduced framing costs and the requirement
interior weight-bearing walls. Lewis patent application was itself notable for
including a novel type of stress test, in which a prototypes concrete roof was
demonstrated not to collapse under the weight of Lewis Dodge Dart. Eventually
satisfied with the trial run, at the vigorous age of 65-plus, Andy Lewis moved
to New Hampshire, bought a plot of land and a
crane and built a beautiful, fully-appointed house in Walpole. It took seven years and a fair bit
of experimentation to complete, but the result was a graceful home that
sheltered Lewis until his death. Andrew K. Lewis is remembered with love by his
six children, their spouses, their children and their grandchildren, by his
partner France Menk, and by their cat, Anteros.

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.